Between the Moons
by Person4
Summary: The night after the ambush at Emin ha'Nazar, Jehane, Ammar, and Rodrigo have a private moment together.  Lions of AlRassan fic, written for Yuletide 2006.


The blue moon was high in the sky by the time Jehane felt it was safe to leave the side of her patient. Later than it needed to be, perhaps, but there was no harm in being overly cautious following her first field amputation. In fact, she'd told herself, it would be good for her in the future to have first-hand experience with all the signs indicating that things were going well, or, if the night had gone differently, of how to tell when things had taken a turn for the worse.

But now Abir slept quietly, his breathing steady, the end of the stump that was left of his leg as neatly cleaned and cauterized as Jehane had ever done. His brother was at one side of him, his father at the other, and Velaz was close at hand. She had faith that the injured man would be perfectly safe if anything were to go wrong while she was away from him, long enough for someone to come fetch her at least.

Ammar was beside her almost as soon as she'd stood, Rodrigo just behind him, and she was sure Alvar would have gotten up to join them too if it weren't for the look his captain threw at him. Any other time she might have laughed at the three of them, if she didn't choose instead to make a cutting remark about not needing an escort everywhere she went, but now she held back the impulse, mindful of Tarif ibn Hassan and his elder son awake nearby. She could still remember how in the time just after her father's maiming being witness to anyone else's joy had felt like nails being hammered into her heart. It had passed, with time, but it was time that the two men hadn't had yet. Perhaps a pair of outlaws would have harder hearts to such things than a physician did, but, having seen Tarif half out of his mind from pain born out of thinking his son was dying earlier that afternoon, Jehane doubted it.

"Come, Jehane," Ammar said quietly. "There's a tributary of the Larrios nearby. You can wash yourself there."

Jehane examined her hands, which in the darkness of the night looked almost black from the dried blood on them. "Lead the way. That will work much better than trying to make do with a bladder full of our drinking water like I'd planned."

The three stayed silent then, until they had made their way out of the camp. They were all aware that the men with them had all fought hard that day, and didn't deserve to have their sleep disturbed by idle chatter.

It was only when they reached the river that Rodrigo clasped her shoulder and said, "That was as fine a job as I've ever seen, Jehane. All the more proof I've chosen the right physician for my company."

She frowned as she pulled away from his hand to kneel by the water and start scrubbing her hands. "I waited too long to begin. If I'd let my nerves delay me much longer, I may have risked the soporific I gave him starting to wear off before I was finished."

He put on a stern face, and for a moment Jehane thought that he must have learned that expression for dealing with his sons. Then she pushed that thought to the back of her mind as she'd found herself doing more and more often when she was reminded of the fact he had a family back in Valledo. "I won't listen to a member of my company demean themselves, Jehane. Especially not when that man would have died under the care of almost any other battlefield surgeon I've known."

"And when you'd already spent most of the afternoon, ah, _helping_ with the ambush," Ammar added from where he'd stretched himself out on a rock, seemingly as comfortable there as he would be in the palace at Ragosa if they hadn't been sent on this campaign. "Quite a day of accomplishment for you."

"My, what a lucky woman I am, to have such great men rush to compliment me," she said dryly. "I wasn't insulting myself, Rodrigo. It was a lesson I learned from what I did today. The next time I need to do this I'll remember that."

"_Ah-ha!_" he replied, sounding absurdly pleased with himself to Jehane's ears. "So, you're willing to admit now that you'll be travelling with my company again in the future."

She rolled her eyes skyward, towards the moons above her. "That isn't what I said." 

"Who else's battlefields would you find yourself doing surgery on, Jehane?" Ammar asked. His voice was light, but there was something in it that made the question feel more serious than it would have coming from Rodrigo. She could tell that the Captain had picked up on it too from the way his eyes narrowed slightly.

She hesitated slightly, thinking, then laughed and said in Esperañan, "_Why, my own! Oh, Nino, my love, watch from the heavens as your Fruela rides out to avenge her fallen stallion!_" As a snort of laughter escaped Ammar the brief change in mood was broken, and to further push it away Jehane tried to catch them off guard by adding, "Now, one of you give me your cape."

She was pleased to see that they did seem taken off guard for a moment, though it either passed or was hidden as infuriatingly quickly as ever, then Ammar pulled his off and handed it over with an easy smile. "My, I didn't expect to be taking off my clothes for you tonight, Jehane. What a pleasant surprise."

"If anyone overhears you saying such things and starts off _more_ betting about who'll I'll take into to my bed, I'll have your hide, Ammar," she said as she ducked behind a bush thick enough to conceal her. "Haven't you ever been told that it's not a good idea to get on your physician's bad side?"

"She reminds me so of my wife sometimes," Rodrigo said giving Ammar an exaggeratedly hangdog look of commiseration. "If the two of them ever _do_ meet, I fear for the men of the world." 

Ammar spread his hands and said in an injured tone, "_She's_ the one who began it." To his credit, it was only a slight twitch of his lip that gave away his amusement.

"As I said, very like Miranda."

"I really must remember to make you introduce me to her in the future," Jehane said as she stepped out from behind the bush, the cape wrapped around her like a shift. "The more I hear about her, the more I think we'd get along wondrously well." She sat beside the river again, and began to wash the blood from her dress.

"Alas, we're doomed," Rodrigo murmured to Ammar.

"Ah, but now we can extort her into not treating us _too_ badly. The wadjis wouldn't be pleased to hear of you not wearing your Kindath colors, Jehane. You'll take pity on us knowing that we could tell them about this, won't you?"

"If they were here, perhaps then I'd be worried. Although, if they were here I'd prefer staying covered in Abir's blood to dressing like this for their eyes. Such threats won't work against me coming from you, Ammar. I know I have nothing to fear." Then she smirked over her shoulder at them and toyed with the knot at her holding the cloak closed around her. "But, if it bothers you that much I suppose I could remove it."

Both of their eyes were trained on the knot, which only made her smirk grow. "I believe playing our Fruela has gone to your head, Jehane," Ammar said, his voice pitched slightly lower. "If you'd have my hide for not teasing you half so badly as this, what shall we have from you if you untie that knot?"

She slowly let her hand fall back into the water and turned away from them. "I suppose we'll have to live with the mystery for now," she said quietly.

In truth, she realized, she wouldn't mind letting it fall off of her. In fact, she'd almost just pulled the dress off of herself in front of them instead of requesting the cape to begin with, just to see the expressions of shock on their faces. 

But she was aware, _so_ aware, that there was a balance between the three of them, like there was between the planet below their feet and the God's two sisters in the sky above, and she was just as aware of how tenuous that balance was. She didn't know what would happen if she bared herself before them, though there was a part of herself that thrilled at the possibilities, but one thing she was certain of was that that balance would be forever thrown off by it.

And she was equally certain that she wasn't yet ready to see what would become of them after that.


End file.
